Underage drinking an old nemesis with new victims

The names and faces of young people killed, maimed and arrested from driving drunk over the last 20 years in SouthCoast fills a six-inch binder in Linda M. Pacheco's office.

BRIAN FRAGA

The names and faces of young people killed, maimed and arrested from driving drunk over the last 20 years in SouthCoast fills a six-inch binder in Linda M. Pacheco's office.

Containing newspaper articles and pictures from the late 1980s through the present, the binder is a compilation of young, once-promising lives cut short. It is a stark reminder of how dangerous underage drinking is.

"It's so heart-wrenching. You take it home with you," said Pacheco, the director of public safety and education for the Bristol County Sheriff's Department. Her son Billy was 18 when he was hit by a drunken driver in 1985. Today, Billy is 43 and paralyzed. He is in a nursing home and requires 24-hour care.

"He got a life sentence because of an irresponsible driver out there," Pacheco said. "His life was stolen from him."

As the prom and graduation season arrives, underage drinking and drunken driving remains a major focus for law enforcement, school officials, and parents. Many local high schools scheduled after-prom parties while others also stage mock drunken driving accidents to hammer home the reality that drinking and driving kills.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials continue to monitor bars, restaurants and stores for selling alcohol to minors. The state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission conducted a sting last month in SouthCoast and caught 52 minors trying to buy alcohol from local businesses.

"There is nothing more I like to see than a line going out the door at a package store because they're checking ID's," said Raynham Police Chief Louis J. Pacheco (no relation to Linda Pacheco).

Police have also contacted limousine companies to remind them of their responsibilities during prom season to prevent teens from consuming alcohol.

"Young people drinking on weekends and non-school nights is certainly not uncommon in any community in the SouthCoast," said recently retired Fairhaven Police Chief Gary F. Souza.

Denise Gaudette, the current director of an alcohol prevention program for the New Bedford Public Schools, said surveys show that one-third of high school students report they binge-drank — usually defined as consuming five consecutive alcohol beverages — within the last month.

The behavior is beginning at a younger age.

"It is alarming when kids tell us they've tried alcohol in the seventh and eighth grades," Gaudette said.

Underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, drinking by teens and college students contributes each year to an estimated 1,700 deaths, nearly 600,000 injuries, almost 700,000 assaults and more than 90,000 sexual assaults.

During prom and graduation season, police say youths who normally do not drink are more likely to do so.

"The sad thing is you go around this area and you see soccer fields and ball fields named after kids who died in car accidents," said Chief Pacheco.

A recent case in Saugus underscores the problem. Jonathan Caruso, an 18-year-old high school senior, allegedly drank 10 beers on prom night, May 15, then crashed his car the next morning, killing a 67-year-old woman and critically injuring her daughter.

Police said Caruso's blood alcohol level was .06 at the time of the crash. The legal limit for adults is .08, but in Massachusetts, a blood alcohol content higher than .02 is the standard for underage motorists.

"If you're under 21, and you have one beer, that puts you over the limit," said Katie Rayburn, a prosecutor with the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.

Rayburn has visited schools in the county to give presentations on the legal ramifications of underage drinking. She discusses recent changes in the drunken driving statutes, including Melanie's Law.

In the past, a person who had been arrested for drunken driving would not be charged with a second offense if the prior arrest occurred more than eight years earlier. Under Melanie's Law, that limitation is gone, meaning decades can pass between drunken driving arrests, but a motorist will still be charged with second and third offenses.

Despite the increased legal sanctions, officials say they still see large numbers of teens drinking and getting behind the wheel.

"Seeing it from court, we see an awful lot of young kids coming in charged with drunk driving," Rayburn said.

"There seems to be an increase of young people being involved in motor vehicle homicides and manslaughter. It's a considerable problem there."

In addition to educational programs, solid parenting could help reduce the problem.

"I'm starting to see more parents paying attention to this issue," Gaudette said.

"It's everyone's role in the community to send the message to kids that this is harmful and we don't want them to do it."

The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs reports that when parents discipline underage drinkers, their children are less likely to become heavy drinkers compared to youths whose parents ignore their drinking.

More parents today seem to think that allowing their children and friends to drink at home is acceptable since they will not be out at bars or parties and driving.

However, hosting underage "drinking parties" is illegal and leaves adults open to liability if something happens, such as a minor dying from alcohol poisoning.

"I think parents these days have the idea that kids are going to drink anyway, so doing it in their houses is the best route," said Rayburn, who talks about the social host liability laws during school visits.

"The parents probably think they're doing the right thing. But once the kids leave, terrible things can happen. The important thing is trying not to be your kid's best friend. Be their parents."

On Friday, Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter hosted a meeting of regional school officials and alcohol prevention experts to discuss an upcoming media campaign to warn teens and parents of the legal consequences of underage drinking and social host liability.

Meanwhile, Linda Pacheco visits schools with a "goody bag" that contains an adult diaper, a prosthetic limb, a catheter and a feeding tube. The props serve as visual aids for what can happen from drunk driving.

"If you don't make it real for them, they don't understand," Pacheco said.

"There is no way to turn back the clock and make them whole again. Tomorrow is not a given. They need to see how precious life really is. And this is not being instilled in these kids in any way."